March 2nd, 5:37 pm. Absent-mindedly tracked mud into house. Wife appeared angry, but when I asked her, she said loudly "No, I am not angry! I love cleaning up the floor!" She then stomped over to the closet. Her love of cleaning was misinterpreted as anger.

March 4th, 6:03am. Wife made simple request for information ("Does this dress make me look fat?"). I give a simple, factual answer. Wife appears hurt, but logically she must be satisfied with my answer. Another misinterpretation.

March 12th, 10:30 pm (roughly). My wife appears passionate this evening, but then suddenly asks if her mother can stay with us for a week. After I tell her my opinion, she says she is not feeling amorous. Note to self: couch needs softer cushions to sleep on.

fluffy2097:malle-herbert: Oh... we understand... we just don't give a rats ass...

we give a rats ass, we're just waiting for them to stop talking about completely irrelevant crap and get to the point.

We cannot watch football and listen to how you chose the blue socks over the red socks because of thread count.

Holy crap, no kidding. I can't count the times I've thought to myself "It's been 15 minutes of non-stop talking, and I *still* have no idea what she wants from me or what the problem is".

She: "I've got something really important to tell you"Me: "OK"She: "Do you remember me telling you about my cousin Gerald who lived in the city? Well it seems that one day he met this girl who had white shoes. The same type of white shoes that Jessica ordered from Eddie Bauer. Well, it seems that Eddie Bauer used to have a yearly sale on their flannel shirts; you know the ones, I use to use them for the cat bed when they got old. Anyway, Jessica's car got broken into the other day and she called me up crying. I told her to call the police, but you know how she has issue with the police due to the fact that her ex was a cop. She told me about this great place for breakfast..."

15 minutes pass

She: "... and so I told her to tell that biatch supervisor to shut the hell up and..."Me: "What the hell is so important???"She: "Oh. The toilet's overflowing. I think you need to fix it"

browntimmy 2013-04-21 06:42:20 PM Fight for the glass, don't say, "Men, you need to back down and give us some of it." If that's your strategy, you don't deserve it.

WhippingBoy 2013-04-21 06:46:27 PM I have a better idea. Instead of fighting over a glass that men made, make your own glass.

Both of you are assuming a lot. You're assuming that it wasn't my glass to being with. You're assuming that men made the glass. You're assuming that women have some "strategy" for keeping the glass away from you.

And both of you seem to feel there needs to be some sort of struggle over the glasses. There is no room in your simplistic and needlessly violent minds for simply sharing.

This is why men are idiots. Everything is a fight. They have not evolved enough to know when to chill the fark out.

Weaver95:albatros183: Weaver95: albatros183: Weaver95: Sometimes I think women do it to us on purpose. My one friend knows that Wednesday night is game night. She knows the approx time I start the show (tabletop rpg). So last week she starts asking me about her decision to get her nipples pierced. That was it...my concentration tanked for the rest of the night. Then she sends me a "good morning" picture of the results. Took me half the day to focus on work after that.

So I think women understand men very well and just f*ck with us on purpose.

should have just had her come over, two brains are better than one and if X is greater than two must be better, what could go wrong?

She kept texting that she was really very sensitive and um...perky. Like I said, there went my concentration for about 2 days.

I think she knew what she was doing dammit.

then give her sex or clip her from your life. choices are simple, play games IRL or don't

Lady Indica:She just wants you to listen. Maintain eye contact and throw in a "Really?" or "Why's that?" every so often. More often than not there isn't a problem or solution. They just want to hear "Yeah that's so inconsiderate of that other person."

Bedstead Polisher:Bashar and Asma's Infinite Playlist: You never once sent him a message that said "Hey missed you yesterday. What happened?" You would have either gotten blown off again (which is an answer in its own way) or you could be consoling him in bed over the tragic loss of his pet guinea pig, who tragically died in a skydiving accident on Sunday. Next time you run into him, just ask. It'll put your mind at ease and prevent you from idly reliving this experience every so often for the rest of your life as women are wont to do.

Good point. We work together (different departments) so we see each other often but rarely converse without people present. I do need to just get over it and ask what's up. At least to answer the question, so I will get over it. He did text me to wish me a happy birthday two weeks after he blew me off and I had to fight the "Oh, so you DO still have my number" response. I need to stop being attracted to guys who give me mixed signals.

WhippingBoy:I've got an hour long loop of "uh-huh", "I see", and "the nerve of that biatch" recorded on my phone. In some cases (e.g. when she's doesn't even have the courtesy to come into the same room as me to "talk" to me), I just turn it on and get back to doing important things.

That would make an awesome iPhone app. It listens on the microphone and waits for pauses and things that sound like questions, then adds the occasional comment in your voice.

A major flaw with this study is that all of the test subjects were male. How well would women do reading men?

"His eyes suggest a sort of whistful yearning and he's almost certainly thinking about pistachio ice cream and sex. I know that look because that's the same look of every guy I've dated. I'm going to go with hunger? And desire, but leaning toward horniness. I should call Michael and remember to get bread when I pick up that ice cream."

Not so fast. I'm always weary of non sequitur-hungry reporters latching onto research that just happens to connect to mindless, social stereotypes (and the researchers that want them to, in order to help their funding).

- The original study that they based their work on (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306453011002332) had a population size of 39 (almost double). They found men got the male emotions right 76% of the time, and women's emotions correct 70% of the time. Again, this does not follow: "Men May Not Understand Women After All". Perhaps a statistically significant result, but not substantial (small effect size, I'd guess). Interestingly, that study was looking at how a particular drug increases men's errors in evaluating negative emotions in other men, but not women.

- How do WOMEN do when evaluating both women and men?!?!?

- "Evolutionary theory" can be used to explain pretty much anything. Evolutionarily-speaking, humans need to be able to read each others' emotions - men AND women. If a man can't read a woman's emotions, he can't mate, species dies out. Blah, blah, blah...

- Depending upon how the female data came out, another way of framing this result might be: "Men understand women just as well as women understand men. However, they are exceptional at interpreting negative emotions in other men." Not surprisingly, you can make an explanation for this based on "evolutionary theory" too.

- A quick aside: They painted a very simplistic notion of the amygdala in the article. Lookup "Kluver-Bucy syndrome" (bilateral amygdala damage) to see just how simplistic it was.

Sometimes I think women do it to us on purpose. My one friend knows that Wednesday night is game night. She knows the approx time I start the show (tabletop rpg). So last week she starts asking me about her decision to get her nipples pierced. That was it...my concentration tanked for the rest of the night. Then she sends me a "good morning" picture of the results. Took me half the day to focus on work after that.

So I think women understand men very well and just f*ck with us on purpose.

I just get tired of the "Oh yeah, we we use you to get power n shiat!" line. If it is true, then it means women only have themselves to blame for why they can't ever seem to get enough of it.

Oh I'm not saying it's not true. I'm just saying you'd have a better chance of reuniting the Koreas with marshmallow candy than you do getting a woman to accept responsibility for anything. The whole concept of "Patriarchy" was invented to absolve women from any responsibility whatsoever (e.g. if a woman murders her children or does something bad, just blame "patriarchy" instead of blaming the poor innocent woman).

KawaiiNot:But yet most men grew up with mothers and many have sisters, aunts, grandmas. I'm not buying something about this "study".

When your mom is angry at you, she screams. When your sister is being picked on too much, she cries. Grandma will come at you with a wooden switch when she's dissatisfied with your behavior. There isn't a lot you need to read in your family member's eyes in those sorts of situations. When you break your mom's favorite part off the miniature statue of David in the living room, she'll let you know exactly how she's feeling about it.

There's no "It's fine," with an implied soliloquy about how rough she's got it.

chaosangel:Or, they will just be really catty to you, but avoid any chance to discuss any issues & deal with the problem.

I once listened to like a forty minute diatribe from one woman, complaining endlessly about some other woman's actions, and made the mistake of asking "So why don't you just call her up and explain this to her like a rational adult?" I've only made that mistake once.

fluffy2097:The trick is to wait for pauses and say "uh-huh" or "yeah" and "that's understandable"

You can keep them going for hours and they have no idea you aren't paying attention.

/Just don't get so comfortable you aren't listening for the surprise question that will fark over your entire game if you can't answer.

I've got an hour long loop of "uh-huh", "I see", and "the nerve of that biatch" recorded on my phone. In some cases (e.g. when she's doesn't even have the courtesy to come into the same room as me to "talk" to me), I just turn it on and get back to doing important things.

From an evolutionary point of view, accurate interpretations of other men's, rather than women's, thoughts and intentions - especially threatening cues - may have been a factor contributing to survival in ancient times.

Makes sense. It's not like women can just say no back in the good o days.